The Real Challenge Facing CBS Leaders

With the addition of Rick Kaplan, at CBS News, is Sean McManus “compensating for his own lack of TV news experience” by bringing together “three titans of TV news?”

That’s what an e-mailer suggests, referring to the trifecta of Paul Friedman, Steve Friedman, and Kaplan.

“When was the last time any one of those three guys was #1? The 1980s or 1990s. So the real question,” the e-mailer says, is this: “can a bunch of older guys who presided during the golden age of giant network budgets and no cable competition actually program a contemporary news division that is already weighed down by tradition and older viewers? You be the judge.”

> Update: 5:24pm: “Keep this in mind,” a CBS tipster responds. “Jim Murphy and Tom Cibrowski have never been number one. Alex Wallace has never produced a daily television program. Jon Banner has been number one for only a week at World News. Jim Bell is number one because Steve Friedman and Jeff Zucker built an organization that anyone could run.” Any reactions?